It is known to remove spent reaction cuvettes from an incubator for a "wet" analyzer, by transferring them from holding apertures in a rotor of the incubator, sideways until they occupy an adjacent aperture large enough to allow the cuvette to fall through to a dump basket. Such devices are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,547. However, in this arrangement, the dump aperture is connected to the holding aperture in such a way that a cuvette can inadvertently slide over, such as because of vibration or centrifugal force, and prematurely fall off the incubator. That is, the dump aperture is disposed radially outwardly from the holding aperture, immediately adjacent thereto.
It has, therefore, been a problem prior to this invention, that the dump aperture for the reaction cuvettes, while being conveniently located, nevertheless is disposed so that inadvertent dumping can occur.
Still further, prior wet analyzers have used read stations, for example, as in the aforesaid '547 patent, that do not position the reaction cuvette close to the detector since, for example, the cuvette cannot be readily moved toward the detector. Although this may be satisfactory for reflectometers or densitometers, it is not for luminometers that detect chemiluminescence, due to the greater sensitivity of luminometers. Chemiluminescence is preferred as it provides a gain in the read signal. In the latter case, the cuvette needs to be moved to a consistent position close to the detector, or vice-versa, for optimum performance, as is well-known.
Thus, prior to this invention, it has also been a problem to provide relative motion of a reaction cuvette and a chemiluminescent read station, without having yet another mechanism dedicated just to this function, since the more mechanisms that are present, the more unreliable the analyzer becomes.